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Famous Americans, 



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Little rJT&oks About Big Men . Life 
Portraits of Leaders Whose Creative f\ 
Work Has Made for National Progress 



In This Numb 



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Dr. James M. Peebles 



Being Peculiarly the Ideas and Observations of 
JOHN HUBERT GREUSEL 






Hours 
With 
Famous 
Americans 

Dr. James M, Peebles 



BY 

JOHN 

HUBERT 

GREUSEL 

H 






Retail and Mail Orders to 

PEEBLES PUBLISHING CO. 

Highland Park, 






Cal. 






Copyright, 1911, by John Hubert Greusel 



©CLA289961 




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^ DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

MET a man to-day who is ninety years of age. 
He is a magnificent specimen of physical and 
mental manhood. In stature he stands six feet 
and is as straight as an arrow. His patriarchal 
and benign appearance is heightened by his flow- 
ing white beard, and by his abundant hair which 
fc hfe wears long over his neck, in the famous style of Walt 
Whitman. 

My venerable friend's life has been filled with wonderful 
experiences. He is America's foremost Spiritualist. By this 
I do not mean that he practices table-tipping, or things of 
that sort. That, he tells me, is spiritism used by the curious, 
the superstitious, the mercenary and the credulous. The 
spiritualism of Dr. James M. Peebles is based on an effort 
to free the mind — to lift the veil — to know the sources of life 
— to be in short, the opposite of a materialist, who sums up 
our birth and our destiny with the words: "Death ends all. 
We perish and turn to dust. Death means annihilation." 

It is not sufficient to say that Dr. Peebles's reputation in 
psychic research is first in America. It is international. He 
is as well known in London as he is in Calcutta or Melbourne. 
His influence girdles the globe. He stands with the great 
Harvard professor, William James, and with William T. Stead 
and Sir Wm. Crookes, in England. But Dr. Peebles has 
carried the study farther than these eminent inquirers. He 
has made five journeys around the earth and has counseled 
with psychic research minds, in every land and clime, on the 
shores of the Seven Seas. 

t£* «£* «<$* 

Dr. Peebles has been writing, lecturing and leading for 
a period well nigh equal to three generations, and at ninety 
he is still seemingly as robust in body and as keen in intellect 
as a man of middle life. Far beyond this, his is the wisdom 
of a mind attentive to what he has seen. Dr. Peebles is one 
of the youngest old men I ever met, and one of the three 
wisest. I might add, he is one of the busiest, most optimistic 
and by all odds, the happiest. I cannot tell you whether he is 



DR. IAMBS M. PEEBLES 

kept young by his mode of life or by his faith, or whether by 
a combination of these two supreme forces of his life. He 
has that Oriental calmness of intellect that is ever the mark 
of the man who has searched deeply throughout all nations, 
and pondered the writings of the sages, touching the question 
of all questions: "Whence came we, and whither are we 
going ?" 

We will talk to this leader on this subject, to-day. We 
will get acquainted with him, in a neighborly way, and we will 
ask him, after awhile, to tell us the story of his life. Let us 
step into his study and make ourselves at home. Dr. Peebles, 
in his long brown velvet dressing gown is at work at his 
broad table, which is covered nearly a foot deep with all man- 
ner of manuscripts, pamphlets, books, and the odds and ends 
of the student's den. Under the mellow light from the east 
window the scholar is seen to advantage. He has a noble 
Roman head, features strong and mobile enough to delight 
Rembrandt, who with such a model would achieve a master- 
piece of grand old age. 

«<7* £* (3* 

JR Dr. Peebles is of the stuff of which moral 
heroes are made, and for that matter, martyrs! 
He is of the type that would go to the block for 
his opinions! This indomitable fighting man 
has in a supreme degree that first mark of all 
leaders, springing from confidence in his own 
reason — the intense identification of the man with his object — 
which lifts him altogether above the fear of danger or death 
and lends audacity to his will. His is the conviction that 
shapes events, but he does not ordinarily show this hardened 
individualism, is not engulfed in his own serious life, but is 
sunny, tells amusing stories, is an admirable mimic, taking off 
the ways of men he has met, with good-natured imitation of 
their style, helping out the picture by oft-hand acting, flexible 
gesturing and tonal imitations that sometimes verge on ven- 
triloquism. In these moods Dr. Peebles reveals the bubbling 
humor springing from good health, a cheery heart and a well- 





DR. JAMES M . PEEBLES 

ordered life. You would think that he never had a care or a 
cross in this earthly pilgrimage, and you view him as a jolly 
companion who will tell a story, sing a song, or sit back and 
listen with the ready interest that makes for a pleasant after- 
noon. Hidden behind all this buoyancy is the fighting Pee- 
bles — the Peebles that fronts the clamor and commotion of 
parliaments of religion and beats down opposition by the force 
of his arguments — the Peebles that is hated and feared and 
defied — the Peebles that cares not whether you hiss or ap- 
plaud, but will have his say against the combined forces of 
church and state. 

Often too has he been adjudged "the master of Irony/' 

p RECOUNT his battles would be to trace many 
phases of modern thought. Dr. Peebles has gone 
on more than one pilgrimage of our Nation, thun- 
dering against the evils of alcohol; and for this 
purpose was an initial organizer of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Good Templars. He raised a 
living voice of godly protest against slavery at a time when 
it was positively dangerous to say, "I am a friend of the Black 
man." He stood with John Brown in the days of persecution 
and was side by side with William Lloyd Garrison. He num- 
bered Theodore Parker as a devoted co-worker, and many 
years later breathed a prayer beside Parker's grave in Flor- 
ence, not far from the broad smooth stone marked "E. B. B.," 
the tomb of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. And Dr. Peebles 
was close at the side of that other notable American, Dr. 
Chapin, of the silver tongue and the imagination aflame, 
thundering out protests against slavery from the New York 
pulpit. Likewise, Dr. Peebles was a fellow worker with Hor- 
ace Mann, along the educational lines laid down by the presi- 
dent of Antioch College. And Dr. Peebles knew intimately 
the Grey Eagle of Oratory, Col. E. D. Baker, the Oregon 
patriot, the man who worked with Lincoln in the log-rolling 
days, and who at one time ran against Honest Abe, for Con- 
gress; Baker, the man who led the troops at Cerro Gordo, 
the man who introduced Lincoln on the steps of the capitol, 



DR. JAMES M . PEEBLES 

to the vast crowd on inauguration day, while — irony of fate ! — 
Stephen A. Douglass held Lincoln's hat. 

All these men, like Peebles, were unpopular in their day, 
men who fronted what seemed lost causes, hopeless social 
reforms, but who by the magnificent power of their respective 
characters, backed by unconquerable will, ended by writing 
anew the history of our own times. 

Nor should we overlook Thomas K. Beecher, half-brother 
of Henry Ward Beecher. T. K. Beecher, an intimate friend 
of Dr. Peebles's middle manhood, was another of the great 
captains in the fight for freedom of thought— and stood by 
Dr. Peebles's side. 

Dr. Peebles met Beecher one bleak winter's day, at Elmira, 
N. Y., where Beecher's church was at that time, and Beecher 
was drawing a handsled loaded with baskets of provisions. 
The preacher, wrapped in a huge overcoat, a woollen com- 
forter muffling his face and neck, leaving mere loopholes for 
his eyes, and his hands encased in big mittens, was scarcely 
recognizable. "Why, Beecher, is that you? What in the 
world are you doing?" "I am taking these provisions to a 
poor family!" "Taking things to a poor family! Why, isn't 
that the duty of the deacons? I never imagined a preacher 
bothered much about that, Beecher." "Oh, the deacons are 
so slow, and the family is on the verge of starvation." 

This incident throws a broad light on the mission of ortho- 
doxy, as conceived at that time, some fifty years ago. The 
great thought of the church was to save folk from hell fire. 
Such ideas as visiting the sick, clothing the hungry, feeding 
the starving, were wide from the creed. The genius of Thomas 
K. Beecher, the breadth of view preached by Dr. James M. 
Peebles, led the great forward movement that aided in human- 
izing the church. Beecher was the first preacher with the 
idea of a people's church, and he accordingly fitted up baths, 
and gave meals, and had a gymnasium, and a library, and a 
free employment bureau, and last but not least, an apartment 
for dancing up stairs; but he was careful, he said, to put in a 
double floor, that the dancers might not disturb the folk 



DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

praying in the hall below! 

While Beecher and Peebles were Presbyterian and Univer- 
salist pastors in Elmira, they were inmates of Dr. Gleason's 
Sanitarium. Beecher coming into the service room for prayers 
one morning, sat by Peebles, saying: "I have a new idea"; 
Peebles said, "Hold on to it; it is so rare with the priests" ; 
"No," said Beecher, I'll tell you: You have been all over 
this country preaching salvation — universal salvation— — and 
I have been after you, preaching hell and damnation. Now, 
you just preach a little more hell to those Universalists over 
in your church, and I won't preach quite so much to my 
people, thus I think we will both come near the truth.... What 
say you?" There followed a general laugh of good nature. 

c£* t^* e<7* 

But in those olden days, the celebrated pulpit orators could 
unbend at times and forget arguments. It was fashionable to 
have "preachers' sore throat," for which sea air and a vaca- 
tion was considered the only sure cure. Dr. Peebles, Thomas 
Starr King and Dr. Chapin tented thus side by side on the 
New England coast; and made lively companions, telling 
each other plain truths that were good for the soul. 

One day Dr. Peebles said the three greatest orators that he 
had ever listened to, were Kossuth, Phillips and Chapin. 
Here, Chapin, who liked his jokes, cut in, "Peebles, do you 
know the only word in our language that rhymes with Pee- 
bles?" "No; what is it?" "Why, it is the word, enfeebles." 
So the jokes went around. 

"What power Chapin had for righteousness, and Beecher 
too," says Dr. Peebles, "in spite of the narrow sectarianism 
that tried him for heresy, expelled him from fellowship, but 
later, much chastened, asked the wronged man to return. 
And he was big enough to drop all rankling thoughts and 
say, 'If I can do any good I will come !' Beecher divided with 
Parker the power to pray in terms of grandeur surpassing all 
other men I have ever heard." 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

'INCE the fourteenth century, the Peebles clan is 
heard of in Scotland, and the Peebles Castle on 
the Tweed was a rallying place. Earl John Pee- 
bles is delineated by Sir Walter Scott as a fighting 
man; and Burns makes musical mention of the 
doughty clan of Peeblestown and Peebleshire. 
The name Peebles, from the Roman meaning "mingling of 
the bloods," has always been a prophesy of restless activity 
to change the social order. The number of soldiers, prelates, 
doctors, and independent thinkers in the family has always 
been large, back to Caesar's time, so the records speak. 

And behind ail this the present writer discerns a mysterious 
analogy, beyond the ordinary materials of history. What 
began with physical blood-brotherhood has ended in the 
earnest struggle for the brotherhood of man. The force work- 
ing to-day in the life of Dr. James M. Peebles is the old 
force, in a new guise. Once we get hold of this biographic 
key, the rest is mere detail. 

Let us now place ourselves on the mountain top from which 
Dr. Peebles looks on life. His ideas are not so much those 
of to-day as they are those of to-morrow. He seems to 
be waving back to us his hand, beckoning to us from a peak 
some distance beyond. 

I do not comprehend it all, in detail, but its force strikes 
me as a great influence in human affairs. I also know that, 
as one of the world's foremost masters of psychic research, 
Dr. Peebles is numbered as a co-worker in such brilliant com- 
pany as Dr. Alfred R. Wallace, Sir William Crookes, Sir 
Oliver Lodge, Lombroso, and Professor James. And I have 
recently read his book of 238 pages, consisting of extracts from 
thoughts of the greatest minds, comprising a gigantic index to 
expressions of belief in psychical phenomena. The record 
goes from beyond Socrates to Tolstoi, an impressive company 
comprising the flower of human intellect. 

These men all hold that there is a manifest destiny for the 
human race. In America, Dr. Peebles tells me, there are 
millions and millions of men and women — an army whose 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

numbers pass statistical bounds — now inquiring into psychical 
phenomena. And while you, personally, may not be able to 
believe that the dead do return to this earth, there is a vast 
company of Americans who hold to that very truth, or who 
are wondering if it may not be true, and are trying to lift 
the veil. 

These thousands of believers, students and investigators 
look upon Dr. Peebles as their teacher, guide and friend. 

HE unusual man before us has been in famous com- 
pany and his missionary zeal has carried him 
five times around the earth. He told me of his 
friendship with the King of Siam, who kept blow- 
ing tobacco smoke almost in Dr. Peebles's face, 
and if there is anything that the Doctor hates, it 
is tobacco smoke ! He has been close to Babu Keeshub Chun- 
der Sen, founder of a strong sect in India; and His Royal 
Majesty Maharajah Sir Jotindra Mohun Tagore Bahadur, of 
Bengal, entertained Dr. Peebles two months at Tagore Castle; 
the Maharajah's son and heir, Sir Prodyot Kumar Tagore 
Bahadur, introduced Dr. Peebles to the elite of Calcutta, 
later also presenting the Doctor to an audience of three hun- 
dred cultured Hindus, with a sprinkling of Englishmen, 
Eurasians and Parsees, who had gathered in the exquisite 
palace hall for Dr. Peeble's lecture. Then he interviewed 
Arabi Pasha in captivity in Kanda, Ceylon. This exiled 
king has since returned to his native Egypt. 

Amongst other notables and scientists, Dr. Peebles was in- 
timate with Professor Hare of the Pennsylvania University, 
Judge Edmonds of the Supreme Court, New York; Robert 
Dale Owen, Chevalier James Smith of Melbourne ; Garibaldi's 
Chaplain, at Naples ; Hiram Powers, Salvador Brunetti, Signor 
Damiani, Bonnemere of Paris; Sir Henry Holland; Gerald 
Massey, William Howitt, Ashburton, and John Bright of 
England; of all these important folk in the realms of the 
psychic, Dr. Peebles tells interesting stories of an intimate 
personal character. The background of his life has been 
world-wide; he is recognized as a teacher among teachers. 



DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 




E obtained, in India, some of the mysterious soma 
vine, and saw two or more new phases of psychic 
phenomena, notably the casting out of demons, 
which is as common in some portions of India, to- 
day, as it was in Palestine in the times of Jos- 
ephus and Jesus. Dr. Peebles frequently saw this 
ceremony, in the suburbs of Madras. In Australia he was a 
witness to unusual psychical researches, begun by Hon. T. 
W. Stanford, brother of the late Senator Leland Stanford. 
T. W. Stanford, is a well known Australian, and noted for 
his interest in art, science and psychic phenomena, much like 
Sir Oliver Lodge, Prof. J. H. Hyslop and men of that type. 
Dr. Peebles has also delved into the metaphysics behind the 
wonderful works of the Hindu fakirs, who fast and pray 
and evoke the ancestral spirits, known as the pitris. He 
came in close contact with the ancestral Veddahs of Ceylon, 
a race that thus far has largely evaded civilization. He also 
became acquainted with the Egyptain magicians, whose work 
is related to that of the alchemists and astrologers, giving 
us a splendid idea of the state of knowledge in the days of 
Father Abraham. The Doctor has interviewed Mohammedan 
hermits, who go about performing religious rites, heal the 
sick and live by begging. He studied with Megettuwatte, the 
Buddhist reformer who held the famous discussion in Ceylon 
with Rev. D. de Silva, a Christian missionary. Dr. Peebles 
has in turn listened with absorbing interest to the evening 
chants of the Buddhist monks, who bare their right shoulder 
and who when walking carry a fan before the eyes, to avoid 
worldly temptations. Dr. Peebles has visited the ruins of 
Sarnath, near Benares, and explored its mysteries. It was 
here that Gautama Buddha delivered his first public address 
after entering his Nirvanic condition. Dr. Peebles has also 
studied with great interest the Yogis practicing meditation, 
those strange priests who hold that their power in a measure 
equals the Creator, a result they avow is achieved by mastery 
of the flesh through fasting and physical tortures, passing 
ordinary human credence. Dr. Peebles met Babu Shishir 



DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

Kumar Ghose, the noted educator and editor at Calcutta; 
worshipped with the Brahmins in India, the Buddhists in 
Ceylon, the Parsees, in Bombay, the Mohammedans in Cairo, 
and prayed alone by himself in the evergreen groves, on the 
South Seas; ate with sinners and camped for the night in 
dens of thieves, and had his temptations, trials and victories; 
saw all races and tribes and many strange lands; — the black 
aborigines of Australia, the tattoed Maoris of New Zealand, 
witnessed the burning of the dead, by the Hindus, studied the 
Persians praying in their fire-temples, conversed upon an- 
tiquity and religious subjects with Chinese in Canton, Brah- 
mins in Bengal, Parsees in Bombay, Arabs in Arabia, rabbis 
in Jerusalem, walked in the Garden of Gethsemane, stood 
upon the Mount of Olives, and bathed in the River Jordan. 
And everywhere Dr. Peebles went, he asked the age-old 
question, noted carefully the reply and squared it with his own 
experiences; the question as old as the longing of the human 
heart after immortality; the question phrased by the Old 
Testament writer: "Man dieth, wasteth away, giveth up 
the ghost, and where is he?" 

Always, the great question was ever before him, If a man 
die, shall he live again? And while studying all bibles, in- 
vestigating all creeds, venerating the memories of all martyrs, 
honoring the deathless deeds of all who went to the scaffold 
or the cross for their conscientious convictions, Dr. Peebles 
insists that the final authority upon these momentous sub- 
jects, is within the conscious spirit of each person. 

fjjAMES PEEBLES, up to his twentieth year, lived 
in a world so removed from this day and genera- 
tion that, looking backward at ninety, he said to 
me: "The world is turned topsy-turvy since I 
was a lad. We have gone forward at a tremend- 
ous rate. Our knowledge has increased a thou- 
sandfold. But, I am not so sure concerning our integrity. 
How times change ! 

"My mother lived in a log house, brought up seven children, 
did her own work, spun the flax for the household linen and 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

helped raise the flocks from whose backs the wool was 
clipped that with her own hands she fashioned into cloth, 
and in turn cut and made into clothes for her family. At 
night, we were lighted by the feeble but kindly glow of 
candles dipped by her own hand. When we were sick, the 
medicine came from her herbs, drying in bunches over the 
fireplace, where also hung the red peppers and the dried ap- 
ples on strings, and the ears of corn, the old flint-lock rifle 
of Revolutionary fame, and the powder horn, and in one side 
of the fireplace in a niche of its own was the oven, where 
the many loaves were baked to feed the family. There was 
a room which was musical many hours, now and then, with 
the whirl of spindles and the shuffle of the handloom, and 
mother was here, spinning and weaving. These were but 
part of her duties, as I look back, and not an hour of her 
long life — she lived to be eighty-eight — but her hands were 
occupied. She worked from dawn to dusk, and on Sunday 
with a sprig of spearmint and a rose in her hand she went 
to church and sang in the choir. 

The neighbors used to call her Aunt Nancy, and when a 
child was born they sent for Aunt Nancy, and it was Aunt 
Nancy that laid out the dead. In one corner she had a cabinet 
of simples, her old-fashioned remedies for the sick. She was 
strong in her faith, and one of her favorite hymns was "While 
Shepherds Watched." I can, in imagination, still hear her 
strong inflections as she emphasized important words, like 
"angel" and "glory." She sang as though she could catch 
a glimpse of the other shore. And as she stood in the choir, 
with her little tuning fork to her ear, under her leadership 
the choir broke into such words as these: 

While shepherds watched their flocks by night, 
All seated on the ground, 

The a-n-g-e-1 of the Lord came down 
And g-1-o-r-y shone around. 
My mother was a strong, noble character, severe but kindly. 
She raised five sons and two daughters, and brought them 
up in the fear of the wrath of God. Misfortunes taught her 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

many hard lessons! Father and mother, in temperament 
and to an extent in ambitions, were the direct opposite. 
Mother from her early youth had been taught to command, 
and she broke the horse on which she afterwards rode; and 
when she was a school teacher, she made her boys and girls 
mind the rules, or be punished. Father was a militia-captain, 
an easy-going, good-natured, honest jovial man, who loved 
pleasant companionships, and who sometimes drank more 
than was good for him; and so made bad bargains and at 
last his land slipped away. Mother and the growing children 
made another home, and late in life found them again in- 
dependent, under their own roof-tree. 

£J3ARD-DRINKING era it was, and young James 
Peebles has reason to remember the "raisin' bee," 
when they named the barn, according to a familiar 
custom. "This is a good barn," was the formula, 
what shall we name it?" "Name it So-and-So!" 
"Good, so be it named!" The men had jugs of 
New England rum, and in a pail James saw about a gallon 
of the liquor, in which floated pieces of lemon rind. It seemed 
a delicious drink, and he helped himself and thought it fine. 
It made him feel so strong. "I can lift that beam as well 
as the next man!" And he busied himself in make-believe 
work while the neighbors laughed at the tipsy boy. By and 
by, his head began to swim! The homeward journey was 
begun, about a mile, and the first thing young James knew 
the earth flew up and hit him in the face, at least he thought 
so. At last he staggered into the kitchen. His mother took 
in the situation at a glance, put him to bed, and nursed him 
till he fell into a troubled sleep. Next morning, she called 
him into the parlor. Oh, how he dreaded that moment. She 
talked to him in a way that was a hundred times worse than a 
whipping. And when he saw the tears roll down her cheeks, 
a great light burst upon him. 
"Mother!" 

From that day to this he has never known the taste of 
strong drink. 



DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

Mother lived to be eighty-eight, grandfather well on to- 
ward the century; a great-grandfather might have touched 
a hundred had it not been that he committed suicide through 
fear of the orthodox religion, which upset his mind. In this 
happy off-hand way Dr. Peebles talks to me in his study, 
in his long brown velvet dressing gown, sitting at his ease 
among his books. Books, books, everywhere, on shelf after 
shelf. I step about and examine some of the titles. I find 
Oriental works with strange names, seemingly running the 
gamut of all manner of religions; and I find metaphysical 
works of all centuries ; and science, art, medicine, poetry ; and 
history, biography, and I know not what else. It was a 
genuine den of literature and research. But for the present, 
the erudite works were disregarded, as in a thousand tiny 
streams of memory, Dr. Peebles's mind was running back to 
boyhood and early manhood, when his world was bounded 
by the words father, mother, sisters, brothers, in the log 
homestead at Whitingham, Vermont. 

t&* fcT* «£7* 

>OM boyhood James was thoughtful, used to read 
every scrap of printed matter that fell his way. 
He would stretch himself out before the log 
fire and pour over some treasured volume. Books 
were rare and costly, and the standard was the 
Bible. Dr. Peebles, looking back through the 
mists of well-nigh ninety years, can plainly see mother with 
her black-letter Bible, following text after text with her first 
finger, the while reading aloud the words of wisdom. It was 
her pious wish that the children should learn the Bible; 
and the lessons were early begun. "And as Jesus passed by, 
he saw a man which was blind from his birth," read the 
mother, and James followed on through the forty-one verses 
of the ninth chapter of St. John, till he knew all by heart. 
The Bible moulded his mind, and later his literary style; and 
the directness of his teachings and writings, in after years, 
owe their undoubted inspiration to these days by the family 
fireside. 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

Young James was kept from close companionship with 
other lads because they mocked his stammering. A strolling 
teacher volunteered to cure the boy, and a class of stammerers 
from thereabouts was formed, the children in some instances 
coming for miles. The method was a complete success. "Keep 
your tongue down!" he would expostulate, and when an un- 
lucky urchin simply could not make his tongue behave, the 
professor would make the boy place a pebble under the offend- 
ing tongue and shout out to the luckless urchin, "Keep your 
tongue on the pebble!" Usually, the boy got along better, 
after that 

V?* i£*l <&* 

Then, he began telling me how he went to anti-slavery 
meetings, along in the early '30's, and sat on the same platform 
with William Lloyd Garrison, and how in time the two became 
fast friends, and co-workers; how, too, he taught in a log 
school, when he was only sixteen years old, and many of his 
pupils were older and bigger than he was. There had been 
trouble, with the former teacher, but Pedagogue Peebles 
didn't care to bring that up, so he told the pupils in his open- 
ing address, adding: "All I wish to say is that, in school, 
I am your teacher, outside, I v/ill join in your games." 

And what a good-natured pedagogue he proved. One day, 
he had to whip a big stubborn Dutch girl, and how he did 
hate to do it; and on another day when the bad boy of the 
school would keep throwing stones and breaking windows, 
it became necessary to take measures. "You may stay after 
school, Tommy!" Tommy sulked, but staid. The furrule? 
No, but a good-natured talk, instead, till Tommy began 
blubbering, his hard heart was melted by Peebles's kindness. 
"Now, Tommy, let's go home together!" 

And at recess, teacher would throw snowballs w T ith the other 

boys and coast down the stiff Vermont hills ; they used goose- 
quils for pens, and each morning there was a long time taken 
to "mend the quills." "Daboll's Arithmetic," and "Gould- 
Browne's Grammar," and "Greenleaf's Speller," are books 
of revered memory. 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

HE fountain head of authority, along in the '20's 
and down to the '40's, says Dr. Peebles, was the 
preacher. Next to him, the doctor. Men took 
a decidedly indigo view of the future life. Ortho- 
doxy was a mythology of hell-fire and brimstone, 
infant damnation, and other dogmas that threw 
a great fear into men's hearts. Weeping willows, cemeteries, 
grave stones, urns, mournful thoughts, shuddering pictures 
of man's innate and total depravity, became the subject of 
daily contemplation. Men and women capable of deep emo- 
tional feeling, sometimes ended in the mad-house, others took 
their lives in sheer despair. Under the stress of emotional- 
ism, women threw off their jewelry, men stood up in the 
crowd and confessed crimes, and called on high heaven for 
salvation! Young Peebles saw all these strange sights and 
now and then witnessed some hysterical woman go insane 
with religious excitements, fall down and shout and sing. 
There was a final mysterious hypnotic state called "getting 
the power." /^§j 

The preaching was frenzied. Sinners were depicted on 
beds of living coals, flames and sulphur around them. One 
verse of a favorite hymn ran: 

Hell, 'tis roomy, large and wide, 

With stores of fuel, plenteously supplied! 

The breath of God makes the full furnace boil, 

And like a stream of brimstone fires the pile! 

The Methodists wore queer-looking hats, no jewelry, and 
preached dreadful punishments, sang these mournful hymns, 
and passed their time largely in lamentations. James Peebles 
was stirred to the core, and at a revival one night many of 
his young companions "got the power" and began carrying 
on dreadfully, singing, shouting and rolling on the church 
floor, in religious ecstacy. Thus, they announced their sal- 
vation. Elder Bush, a terrific Bible-pounder, painted hell in 
a way to make gooseflesh creep up and down young James's 



DR. JAMBS M . PEEBLES 

back! At last, James and some young lady acquaintances 
came forward and were converted, but an unexpected incident 
cooled James's belief. Mark the sequel! Some days later, 
Elder Bush could not be found. There was great excitement 
in the village. He had eloped with his wife's servant girl, 
and had left his wife and f ouj_ small children behind ! 

Curiously enough, many of the preachers were even more 
afraid of death than were the church-goers! Elder Everitt, 
a Calvinistic Baptist preacher, especially, had his weak side. 
When in health, he would number from the pulpit, with 
dread impressiveness, the materialists and non-believers in 
the community, and warn them to heed the approaching day 
of judgment. Dr. O. Martin, Dr. Peebles's cousin, was thus 
called more than once; but when sick the Elder would slip 
quietly over to see Dr. Martin, saying, "Oh, doctor, I am 
feeling very sick and I am not ready to die !" But soon cured 
of his indigestion by the doctor's skill, Elder Everitt would 
enter the pulpit again, hurling his theological thunders and 
lightnings and rattling off the weird phraseology of Revela- 
tions about seven and nine-horned beasts. "Lord, burn up 
the altar ! Lick up the river ! Give hell a rim-racker to-night. 
Hallelujah!" 

HE funeral of James Peebles's chum, Jerry Brown, 
proved the turning point in Dr. Peebles's life. 
The preacher's text was: "He that believeth not 
on the Son, the wrath of God abideth on him." 
Elder Scott delivered the sermon. People were 
there for miles around. Jerry was a good boy, 
says Dr. Peebles, but that did not satisfy Elder Scott. It was 
a terrifying sermon, charged with all the curses of hell for 
the poor dead lad! Suddenly the mother shrieked out, "Will 
I never see my darling boy again?" "Perhaps, for a few mo- 
ments, only, on the day of judgment," thundered the Elder, 
"but then you will go one way and Jerry another, for the boy 
is eternally damned because he died without religion!" Jerry 
Brown's mother, on hearing these dreadful words, went out 
of her mind to the day of her death, some years later. 





DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

But young James Peebles, sitting quietly near, said to him- 
self, "It is a lie, a wicked lie, and if Jerry has gone to hell, 
I want to go too, and with such religion I will have nothing 
to do, I'll go out and fight it!" And fight he did, for many 
years, as a platform orator of spirit and power. For Matthew, 
Mark, Luke and John, he substituted Tom Paine, Hume, 
Volney and Voltaire. As time wore on, guadually the equili- 
brium was restored; but Young James never fully recovered 
from the shock of Elder Scott's terrifying forecast. 

ROM this time forward, James Peebles's mental 
life grew apace. He took a course at Upper Lisle 
High School, then went to Oxford Academy, from 
which excellent institution he is a graduate; and 
finally was ordained in the Universalist church, 
preaching his first sermon at McLean, New York, 
with a call to Kelloggsville, later with three years at Elmira, 
and terms at Oswego, and other points. Adopting as his 
proud device that stirring phrase, "The world is my parish, 
and truth my authority " Dr. Peebles became an unrelenting 
foe of warping dogma, whether in church or state, the central 
figure in that fearless brotherhood exemplified by such eminent 
and enlightened reformers as Theodore Parker, to whom Dr. 
Peebles has been often compared. A new time was dawning ! 
"The manna that fed the Israelites is not befitting the nine- 
teenth century," was one of Dr. Peebles's keynotes, "and 
thinkers demand knowledge rather than faith or tradition." 
Henceforth, Dr. Peebles's great phrase was, "Freedom of 
thought is the soul's birthright." 

Instead of fearing new ideas, he welcomed them. There 
was an amusing side, occasionally, as when he invited Mrs. 
Amelia C. Bloomer to occupy his pulpit, at Oswego, with 
her dress-reform ideas. All the other preachers of Oswego 
had shrugged their shoulders and had turned her coldly away ; 
but Dr. Peebles welcomed her cordially, going to the depot 
to meet her. Radical that he was, the Doctor was for the 
moment startled by her appearance! He beheld a plump 
lady, seemingly dressed for sea-bathing, in what at first 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

glance looked like! Oriental trousers, reaching only to the 
knees! Dr. Peebles, who at that time of his life still had a 
strong idea of a preacher's dignity, wore a silk hat, white 
cravat and frock coat; and he hesitated just an instant, but 
recovering his composure, offered his arm, with the grace of 
a Chesterfield, and proceeded to conduct the lovely lady 
up the main street. A howling crowd which soon swelled 
to the proportions of a mob hung at the Doctor's heels, and 
he never spent a more unpleasant fifteen minutes in his life! 

ROM these years date Dr. Peebles's first interest 
in psychic research, a movement begun by Daven- 
port Brothers, the Fox Sisters, at Hydesville, N. 
Y., and by Andrew Jackson Davis, author of 
"Nature's Divine Revelations," and "The Great 
Harrnonia," also other volumes that entitle him 
to be called the father of American spiritualism. In fact, Dr. 
Davis prophesied of the speedy communication with the world 
beyond, some years before the Fox Sisters made their demon- 
strations. These things were in the air, so to speak. There 
was unrest everywhere, and men were inquiring in new di- 
rections for old truths. 

At the time of Dr. Peebles's call to the Universalist church, 
Baltimore, the investigation of psychic phenomena in Amer- 
ica had just begun, and was regarded as tampering with 
Nature's own laws. The orthodox churches, especially, were 
up in arms. Dr. Peebles decided to trace the pathway of 
the spirit to the spiritual world, and largely devoted his life 
to psychic research, long antedating the results achieved by 
W. T. Stead in his recent exposition of the "celestial tele- 
graph," in London, conversing with the spirits of the dead. 
Thus, Dr. Peebles is of America's pioneers in psychic research. 
About this time, also, Dr. Peebles had been reading Gen. 
John C. Fremont's anti-slavery tracts and was likewise an 
admirer of Greeley's "Tribune." Preacher Peebles stirred up 
a hornet's nest in staid old Baltimore! He turned the tables 
when he exposed the fact that Deacon Ironmonger, the pious 
old conservative of his church, had in pawn a black woman, 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

awaiting the auctioneer's block, in the slave market, for satis- 
faction of a debt ! Dr. Peebles could not permit this blasphemy 
to pass unrebuked, and called on heaven to deal with Deacon 
Ironmonger as suited his iniquity. After that, Dr. Peebles 
took a vacation — preceded by the usual letters of felicitation 
and regret, at the sad church parting! Years later, Dr. Peebles 
was invited to recant and return! He was highly amused at 
the suggestion, but no doubt the good folk of Baltimore in- 
tended it as a compliment. 

<£• <*5* %3* 

ATTLE CREEK once had a large colony of 
Quakers, in the earlier day, but the sect has died 
out, there, Invited by the Quakers, Universalists 
and others, Dr. Peebles began a seven years' min- 
istry here. They met in Stewart's Hall, — they 
were composed of dissenters, freethinkers, — also 
a liberal sprinkling of folk who had tried all manner of creeds 
and were heartily sick of the very name "religion," but 
continued to seek the truth. 

Here, Dr. Peebles was in his element! He took up work 
the orthodox folk didn't think worth while, such as visiting 
the sick, helping the widows and orphans and comforting 
the despairing. The other churches, engrossed in their favorite 
occupation of trying to keep folk out of hell, were not worry- 
ing about this world; or, as Dr. Peebles's friend, Dr. Harter 
expressed it, in his notable Auburn experiment, known as 
the "Church of the Divine Fragments,"— "The idea of the 
orthodox churches is to keep people out of hell, and mine is 
to keep hell out of the people." Of the Quakers, Walt Whit- 
man wrote: 

She looks out from her Quaker cap, her face is clearer and more beautiful 

than the sky. 
She sits in an arm chair under the shaded porch of the farmhouse, 
The sun just shines on her old white head. 
Her ample gown is of cream-hued linen, 

Her grandsons raised the flax, and her grand-daughters spun it with the 
distaff and the wheel, 



DR. JAMES U. PEEBLES 

The melodious character of the earth, 

The finish beyond which philosophy cannot go and does not wish to go, 

The justified mother of men. 

^» t0* tc& 

The "queer folk" of Battle Creek, as they were termed in 
the early day of Dr. Peebles's preaching, were sharp shrewd 
questioners, and Dr. Peebles was often put severely to the 
test. Sometimes he came off second best, or had a narrow 
escape. The exercise did him good, however, teaching him 
not to be too dogmatic. There was often an unexpected turn, 
as for example when he preached a sermon on "The Im- 
mutability of God." "If God is immutable, why pray to him?" 
a Quaker asked. The logic seemed unanswerable, until Dr. 
Peebles restated the argument. 

"What our brother says is true, but look at it in this way: 
Over yonder is an island filled with all manner of luscious 
fruits, and on the shore you and I stand hungering for the 
feast. We step into a small boat and pull the chain that 
moors her to the other shore ; and by our exertions are slowly 
impelled nearer and nearer still; although it seems to us that 
our boat is standing still and the island is approaching. Thus, 
the power of prayer brings us to God, like a mysterious silver 
chain stretching from this world to the world beyond." 

Among the followers at Battle Creek was Sojourner Truth, 
who for forty years had been a slave. Her voice was deep 
and husky, and her earnest anti-slavery speeches made her 
in great demand. One day at Coldwater, some Michigan 
lawyers were down in front, and one of them suddenly stood 
up and interrupting the big black woman, said impressively: 
"Why, you are not a woman at all ! You are a man, and you 
have a man's voice and a man's ways!" Instantly Sojourner 
Truth opened her dress and showed her bosom, at the same 
time shrieking in rage: "You jus' come up here, sonnie, and 
see for you'self if I am a woman or a man !" The nonplussed 
lawyer was greeted with howls, and he made a hasty exit; 
and sometime later the church authorities of his denomination 
took it up and angrily suspended him. 



DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 




NE of the great moral issues early raised by Dr. 
Peebles was in California, fifty years ago — al- 
though he has since followed with other reform 
movements of parallel importance. He pleaded 
for temperance and better ways of living The 
lesson was sorely needed, at the time, by an 
exceedingly large element of raw, rough mining men. Fannie 
Green, the poetess, addressed burning words of welcome, and 
Dr. Peebles saw the shadows of California life as few men 
have seen it, and as Bret Harte delineates the turbulent old 
times. Dr. Peebles was blessed and blamed and damned 
enough to show that his labors had not been in vain. 

It was while in California that Brother John, aged ninety- 
three, a Quaker, working in his garden supplied a lesson. 
The old man was setting out pear trees no larger than canes. 
"Surely, Brother John, you do not expect to live long enough 
to eat the fruit from those trees?" "No, brother James," re- 
plied the Quaker, "but seest thou that pear orchard over 
yonder? Someone else planted that, brother James, and I 
have eaten of the fruit, and in turn I plant these trees for 
those who come after me." "When you are in Heaven?" sug- 
gested Dr. Peebles. "Heaven, brother James," replied the 
old Quaker, pausing at his work and growing reflective, 
"heaven is here, here and now, brother James. I have been 
in heaven for lo! these fifty years. I have brought it out 
of the skies by right living and fairness to my fellow man." 




R. PEEBLES has known many eminent men; and 
his stories of their idiosyncrasies would fill an 
entertaining volume. He called on Carlyle, in 
Chelsea, and after a long wait in a lonesome 
parlor the sage entered, rather mournfully. With 
rough humor the celebrated author took Dr. 
Peebles's card, and scanning it narrowly, said: "Oh, Peebles, 
Peebles." Then, after a pause, "Peebles, Scotch!" Then, 
after another pause, "Scotch, humph! five million of them 
in Scotland; five million Scotch!" Then, after a final deep 
impressive pause, "And most of them are fools!" "But I 



DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

am from America," returned Dr. Peebles, with a well-bred 
smile. "America," returned the sage, again falling into a 
brown study, "America it is, eh !" Then, after a pause, 
"America, that great maw which hatches out the world's fads !" 

Dr. Peebles knew Emerson intimately, and had more than 
one notable interview with the Concord sage. Emerson's 
central thought was: "Cognize thyself!" By this he meant, 
"Be thyself!" Dr. Peebles says: "Emerson planted himself 
firmly on his own intuitions, seldom indulged in a systematic 
chain of argument, announced truths, as he felt them to be 
truths, and left them to produce the hoped-for convictions, 
replied to no attacks, made no explanations. He was a 
natural idealist. Caring little for the outer rims or shells, he 
went down to the soul of things. He must know the source, 
seeing the passing stream. Emerson urged Dr. Peebles to 
study the Oriental literature, and on one memorable occa- 
sion, the poet spent an afternoon with Dr. Peebles, discuss- 
ing the wonderful literature of the East. 

Undoubtedly another of the great American characters of 
this period was Elder Frederick Evans, the Shaker, of Mount 
Lebanon, N. Y., and a close friend of Dr. Peebles. The Elder 
sternly reproving men for their hypocrisy, wasted no words. 
One day, in London, the Elder and Dr. Peebles were guests 
at breakfast, at the house of a noted member of Parliament. 
The breakfast was sumptuously served, the menu was long 
and tempting, but it was noticed that the Elder was not eating. 
The host in perplexity, pressed on him fish, game, meats, 
cold or hot, and all manner of delicacies; and finally in de- 
spair asked, pleasantly, "What do you eat? I'll order my 
cook to get you up some special dish?" "No," replied the 
Shaker, "realizing in advance that you would not have any- 
thing fit to eat in the house, I brought my bread with me!" 
And thereupon he drew forth a hard loaf from a small black 
hand-satchel, and calling for a cup of hot water, in which 
he poured some milk, proceeded to eat his breakfast. 

On the voyage, a storm arose and the Elder was found 
on the captain's bridge, going through motions with his arms, 



DR. JAMES U . PEEBLES 

at the imminent peril of breaking his neck with the lurching 
of the ship. "Elder, what are you doing there!" called Dr. 
Peebles, in terror. "Come out of that; you will lose your 
life !" "Oh," replied the Elder, quietly, "I was merely saying 
to the waves, 'Peace, be still; peace, be still' !" 

The preachers gathered around him, later in the cabin, 
and wanted him to preach to the frightened folk. "No," said 
the Elder, "you men must preach ! I am a preacher to 
preachers, only!" And preach they did, as never before in 
their lives. 

Aboard this steamer, also, was the irrepressible George 
Francis Train. In a talk to the passengers he said most cheer- 
ily, "I have been jailed seven times and to me the puzzle 
of all puzzles is how any honest man can keep out of jail." 

Some lives seem immune from disaster. If Dr. Peebles, 
unlike the Pauline Missionary, was never in "peril by sea," 
his freedom was jeopardized when descending Mount Etna 
into the streets of Messina ; he was spotted by the Sicilians as 
the expected Father Gavazzi, a noted church renegade ex- 
posing Catholicism. An excited mob surrounded him; the 
tumult increased till the doctor exhibited his Consular pa- 
pers, with the signature of President Grant. The police made 
apologies ad nauseum. It is still an unsettled problem, which 
church, when it had the power, was the more violent perse- 
cutor, Catholic or Protestant. 

Dr. Peebles was very close to that stirring journalist, "Brick" 
Pomeroy, exchanged confidences with Joshua Giddings; was 
also a confidant of Wm. Tebbs and Dr. W. Scott Tebbs; 
battled with Col. Ingersoll and is one of the few men who 
ever worsted Ingersoll in an argument. Dr. Peebles's best 
book, shining with brilliant literary coloring, struck off in 
the heat of argument with Ingersoll, "The Christ Question 
Settled," is a masterpiece. 

Among Dr. Peebles's intimates was Victor Hugo. They 
discussed ideas on psychic research. Dr. Peebles sat at a 
seance in Paris with Hugo by his side. That night, Hugo 
wept tears of joy at a spirit message from his son. 




DR. JAMES U. PEEBLES 

Rabbi Wise, president of the Cincinnati Hebrew College, 
was at various times in cordial correspondence with Dr. 
Peebles, and together the two men considered certain difficult 
phases of the Talmud. 

Thus, the list grows, by the hour. It numbers Brigham 
Young, who, by the way, was a native of Dr. Peebles's old 
village, Whitingham; and Lord Lytton; Hamilton Fish; 
Bishop Chalmers; Mrs. Max Mueller; Prof. DeMorgan; 
Baron Guldenstubbe ; — all expressing confidence in Dr. Pee- 
bles's leadership. 

HERE was always much of the gentleness of the 
Quaker about Dr. Peebles, on one side of his 
character; as there is much of the evangelist 
on the other side. Greatly to the disgust of Gen. 
Phil Sheridan, Dr. Peebles showed himself an 
advocate of universal peace, at a time when 
Sheridan, at Cheyenne, then the end of the railroad, was en- 
deavoring with one hand to make peace treaties, while with 
his words he was constantly stirring up hostility. Gen. Sheri- 
dan was an avowed hater of the red man, and openly declared 
that the only way to solve the Indian problem was to "kill 
all the nits," meaning to massacre the children and thus de- 
stroy the race. Dr. Peebles, on the other hand, went 'round 
among the Indians shaking hands and making friends. One 
day Sheridan was particularly outspoken, and the aged Gen. 
Harney, who stood over six feet, arose before the commis- 
sion and solemnly interposed an objection, adding: "Gen. 
Sheridan, I have fought the Indians, sir, for forty years. I 
fought Osceola, sir, in Florida; and Blackhawk in the East, 
and I wish to say, here and now, that the first to break all 
the treaties has never been the red man." This sentiment 
was heartily re-echoed by Dr. Peebles, who was "just aching 
all over" to shake the doughty old Indian fighter by the 
hand for his outspoken words ; but military etiquette forbade. 

Another of Dr. Peebles's friends was the poet, Walt Whit- 
man, whose student's den, in the old white cottage at Camden, 
N. J., was a veritable swamp of pamphlets, books and manu- 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

scripts. The two men read poems together. "Whitman was 
eminently social," says Dr. Peebles. "He wrote of life as he 
saw it, on the open road. Fame was to him a bauble, to be 
shunned. He was a giant of soul impulse. There was not a 
shadow of sham about him. Whitman regarded himself as 
an idea, a new idea, a new spirit, a new language for civiliza- 
tion!" Once the poet used these extraordinary words, to Dr. 
Peebles: "What am I but you, what are you again but the 
same I, the two halves of a circle in the infinite circle !" 

O be in health, happy and optimistic at ninety, is 
in itself far beyond the routine of life. I found 
Dr. Peebles living in a pretty bungalow, near 
the foothills. His front porch is overgrown with 
a bower of red roses. The land basks under a 
vivid sunlight, mild, invigorating and not op- 
pressive. Around about are gardens of semi-tropical loveli- 
ness. The hillsides are carpeted with wild poppies of the 
color known as king's gold. It is a retreat for a philosopher. 
He tells me that as far as possible, he obeys the laws of 
nature. We were, at that moment, discussing longevity. Dr. 
Peebles sees no reason why man's span might not be much 
lengthened. Summing up his thought, and setting forth his 
system of living, I express his method, briefly, in his own 
succinct phrase: "I behave myself." This is his one golden 
thought, to account for his great length of years. He has, 
in short, lived according to Nature. And he has kept his 
spirit cheerful. This morning, he tells me, as on every morn- 
ing, Winter or Summer, for well nigh nine decades, as men 
reckon time, he was up at five o'clock. Then, he went out 
on the porch to take keep breaths. For sixty years, he has 
abjured tobacco, liquors, meat, tea, coffee, and condiments. 
He has avoided black pepper, pickles, pork, catsup, cheese, 
pies, cabbage, cakes, spiced luxuries. He has nourished him- 
self on fruits, coarse wheat bread, oatmeal, corn, rice, cracked 
wheat, cream, eggs, nuts, butter, and an abundance of water 
as his only beverage and liquid refreshment. At ninety years 
of age, he finds his eyesight unimpaired, his hearing acute, 



DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

his internal organs well disposed, his muscles strong, his spirit 
youthful, his sleep sound and wholesome and undisturbed by 
dreams — and no day too long. 

t2& t/5* «<?* 

I find Dr. Peebles filled with missionary zeal, ready to 
bear fatigues in lecturing, willing to undertake long journeys ; 
keen in joint-debate, eloquent as an individual teacher, before 
an audience of two or three thousand, to whom he talks 
for an hour and the interest never flags ; still alert to rebuke 
intolerance of opinion, or to encourage novices with kind 
words; busy for a part of each day with his intimate corre- 
spondences with co-workers, in various parts of the world, 
among whom are many famous thinkers, authors and leaders 
in reform movements. 

MONG his amiable traits is his fondness for young 
children. His venerable age and his kindly smile 
impress children and they instinctively trust 
and follow Dr. Peebles. Often, he is in the habit 
of taking the boys and girls in his arms and 
caressing them tenderly, but with a strange far- 
off reverence. There is something inspiring in the way in 
which Dr. Peebles lays his hands on children's heads and 
blesses them out of sheer goodness of heart. At such moments, 
he is natural and unaffected, and the moral beauty of his life 
shines forth to the dullest eye. 

Wherever he goes, he keeps a fatherly eye on the young 
boys smoking their first cigars or cigarettes. He has a quiet, 
friendly way of going up to the young, and in a few words 
gaining their confidence. 

He likes animals, is a defender and friend of all dumb 
brutes; and is so fond of flowers that he speaks to them fa- 
miliarly, in his garden, as though they understood him. He 
is an outdoor man, and often looks at the sun and blesses the 
golden light. With friendly eye, he inspects the growing 
things in his garden and extemporizes poetic thoughts on the 
wonders of life, development and fruition. He marks the 
birds and says something to them out of the kindness of his 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

heart. And the venerable man with his long brown velvet 
gown, his great white beard upon his breast, his hoary head 
uncovered, in his beautiful garden, presents a picture not soon 
forgotten. Toward the end of the day, his literary labors 
over for the time being, he may pass some time near his 
roses, perhaps with a volume of his favorite poet of humanity, 
Robert Burns; and by such simple devices as these the time 
quickly passes and Dr. Peebles says good bye to the declining 
sun, not in sorrow as marking another day vanishing in his 
ninety years, but in joy of heart to think that he has experi- 
enced a perfect day and has enjoyed every passing moment. 
"I have lived this day. It is blessed to live, and to be ninety 
years old. God is good." 

And mark well my words ! When in the course of nature the 
time comes for Dr. Peebles to leave us— may the day be dis- 
tant! — or as he phrases it in his quaint way, "to pass over," 
his optimism will not fail him, even to the going down of 
that last sun, on that last day. For, with him, to say "Good 
night!" is, he tells me, "Good morning!" and in the unending 
processes of Nature nothing is lost and nothing perishes. 
Such is his life's philosophy. 

Thus, he works with a cheery heart and sings till the hills 
make answer, and he finds life well worthy. His long ex- 
periences with the sorrows of mankind have made him char- 
itable of others, patient, long suffering, slow to take offence 
and prone to overlook the weaknesses of human nature. What 
a noble crown for a noble life ! 

HOUGH honored with membership in many of the 
world's learned societies, such as the Victoria 
Institute of London, he never became entangled 
in meshes of pride or puffed up with that personal 
glory, which dazzles, only to destroy. 

That he has never sought a wordly fortune out 
of his activities, goes without saying. Funds have come to 
him in various ways, but he has used them liberally for his 
reforms. On the other side, there is no doubt that had Dr. 
Peebles been content to preach what "our church" wanted, 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

taking a timely hint from the trustees, cultivating the ladies, 
using also the right perfume on his handkerchief, in the in- 
terim making a surface study of society, and careful not to 
stir things up too much, there is small doubt that he would 
now be — and for years past — a bishop of some orthodox 
church, in demand for fashionable funerals, weddings and 
christenings. 

But he has been too much of an apostle of the literal and 
primitive Christianity, which he has sought in all manner 
of ways ; and his offensive partisanship has naturally canceled 
many contingent dinner invitations in high quarters; but 
there are folk in the slums who like his work; and to-day 
child-labor is not as monstrous as it used to be ; and drunken- 
ness is not as common; and some men are living saner lives; 
eating purer foods; going more out of doors; walking more 
along Whitman's open road, through the green fields; and 
the wives are treated better, and there is a more wholesome 
view of life and of death as well, in many directions; and 
finally, that underlying idea of universal brotherhood, long 
by many practical men regarded as a dream, slowly makes 
its way, year by year, impelled by the friction of many minds 
now working in unison for the common end; but for many 
years Dr. Peebles and his devoted co-workers in this broad 
field bore the brunt of the battle, often enough disheartened 
but never doubtful of the final victory. And the veteran cap- 
tain is still drafting soldiers for the social service, everywhere, 
through his books, his lectures, his pamphlets, and his general 
calls to arms. 

<5* ^* v5* 

f> tf those stirring years of warfare relating to the 
abolition of slavery, Dr. Peebles, well-poised, 
never wavered before responsibility nor shrank 
from the summons of that duty which knows 
neither choice nor compromise! He was one of 
the earliest to stand up for the black man, and at 
a time when to express favorable opinions meant to be greeted 
with a shower of stones. Dr. Peebles has always had in his 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

heart much of way of the old-time Quakers, with their so- 
cieties against anti-slavery. For this, the Quakers were, in 
the early day, held to be enemies of the law and the govern- 
ment persecuted them, sorely. Also, on more than one 
occasion on the Pacific Coast, where race prejudice some- 
times takes the form of personal violence on unoffending 
heads, Dr. Peebles has faced a mob to rescue from death 
a Chinese boy baited by enraged Americans armed with 
clubs, bricks and knives, and calling out wildly, "Kill the 
yellow-faced devil!" While U. S. Consul at Trebizonde, the 
leading commercial city of Turkey in Asia, Dr. Peebles went 
without fear and from a sense of solemn obligation, as he 
believed, to visit and comfort the wretched human beings 
dying of the plague. Thus, he has consistently taught, for 
years, in all parts of the earth, a simple faith in the literal 
idea of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. 
He has preached the Lord's prayer, beginning with the words : 
"Our Father, which art in heaven." Reduced to practical ap- 
plication, God is our Father and we are his children. That 
is, in Dr. Peebles's view, the sum total of Christianity. 

t5* x£& *&* 

N his long life-time, Dr. Peebles has seen many 
great changes and has helped make these trans- 
formations. Americans have widened their 
views and have now largely cast aside the worn 
out shells of theology. To tell it tersely, what 
Dr. Peebles has tried to do, in all his varied cam- 
paigning is to bring greater equality of rights, in a number 
of directions important to the race. Have you done as much? 
And could you do more? Let his record stand. He went to 
the wars, but at heart he remained a man of peace. Like Elder 
John, who at ninety-three planted young pear trees, that the 
men who came after could eat the fruit, Dr. Peebles has set 
out the root with no hope of personally profiting thereby. 
But he was looking to the future. 




DR. JAMES M. PEEBLES 

Dr. Peebles has gone everywhere closely studying the 
civilizations of the various countries, and everywhere he has 
found engrafted in the special form of civilization, a religion, 
a special language and peculiar customs to which the people 
tenaciously cling. Each race, black, red, brown, yellow, and 
white, lives as behind a wall. There are breaches here and 
there, and some of the old walls are crumbling, but they will 
individually stand for many years to come. As time goes on, 
it is inevitable that one race will attempt to absorb and 
lead the other, in all manner of ideas, and on the other side 
it is also inevitable that some must fall to the rear. Thus, the 
ultimate collapse of sectarianism, and the era of some new 
religion — at which Dr. Peebles, Sir William Crookes, Sir 
Oliver Lodge, and the others have aimed — will arrive. Dr. 
James Peebles, whose life's battle has been for religious and 
social equality, sees these facts clearly, and presents them 
forcefully. Dr. Peebles is content to wait. He knows that 
it is written! 

«i5» ^w t2& 

Thus, to Dr. Peebles, the materials of history are not com- 
posed wholly of the interplay on society of innumerable 
biographies, the one against the other, as Carlyle tells us in 
his effort to account for great men. Behind all human lives — 
and behind each individual existence— are multitudes of subtle 
influences that eventually shape and direct the stream called 
contemporary civilization, utterly beyond the reckoning of 
the politician, statesman, or monarch. The materials of 
history follow inalienable laws, nor yet understood. 

?^» «<5* <<5* 

ILLIAM JAMES, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir William 
Crookes, Camille Flammarion, Dr. Peebles, Hiram 
Powers, Count Tolstoi, and Victor Hugo, hold 
that man has many powers not charted in the 
science of the day, that too there is a life beyond 
the grave, and that it is possible to know that 

life ; likewise, that the dead do return, as in Christ's time, and 

life itself is at once pre-existent and perpetual. 




DR. JAMES M. PEBBLES 

To some men, psychic research and what flows therefrom 
is marvelous; to others, it is unthinkable. To some, it is a 
fairy tale in fascination and in fact; and to others, it is folly. 
Thus, each according to his light. 

Using the phraseology of Victor Hugo: "When I go 
down to the grave I can say like many others, I have finished 
my day's work; but I cannot say I have finished my life. 
My day will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not 
a blind-alley: it is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight 
and it opens on the dawn." 

"These are strange but true words, and to a certain type 
of mind," says Dr. James M. Peebles, "they cannot at present 
be brought home." 

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In what manner, then, the religion of the future will event- 
ually express itself, is one of the momentous questions, on 
which Dr. Peebles has thought deeply; and now that you 
have read something of his life-long aims, his battles for 
opinion, his shaping of forces in newer directions, his alliances 
with other great minds, the world around, it is for you to say 
to what extent he fulfils the measure of a long and useful 
life, as a soldier of the social service. 

Summing it up with words from "Toilers of the Sea," Dr. 
Peebles stands squarely where Victor Hugo stands: "There 
are," says Hugo, "times when the unknown reveals itself 
to the spirit of man in visions. Such visions have occasionally 
the power to effect a transfiguration, converting a poor camel- 
driver into Mahomet; a peasant girl tending her goats into a 
Joan of Arc. . . . Those that depart still remain near us. 
They are in a world of light, but they as tender witnesses 
hover about our world of darkness. Though invisible to 
some, they are not absent. Sweet is their presence; holy is 
their converse with us. . . ." 

We leave Dr. Peebles, here, at ninety; his heart still 
optimistic ! 



JUN 21 1911 







One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



HIN 21 19f! 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 007 332 4 



